If there’s one thing Netflix is well known for, it’s the constant stream of content it is introducing to users. Thanks to the WGA and SAG strikes in 2023, though, there are fewer shows than usual on the docket for the summer of 2024. Even so, there are still plenty of at some point over the summer.
While most of the highest-profile shows coming this summer are returning, there’s also some new blood in the mix. These are the five we’re most excited for, ranked from least excited to most anticipated of the sunny season.
How excited you are for the return of Stranger Things depends a great deal on how much you love the first half of the show’s third season. The show is not likely to ever reach the same buzzy heights it managed to achieve during its first season, but maintains a sizable audience, and there will be plenty of people excited about the conclusion of the show’s third installment. Because the show shifts perspectives with every season, it seems like it could continue telling these stories long into the future, as long as Netflix subscribers remain interested in them.
While it’s no longer the same level of phenomenon that it was during its earlier seasons, Cobra Kai remains one of Netflix’s best original shows. The series is returning for its third and final season this summer, and will continue the story of Gus as he travels with his friends to Alaska in hopes of finding his mother. The cult show is also set to introduce a new character played by Kelly Marie Tran named Rosie during this final outing, bolstering an already strong cast. Fans of The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai should dig Cobra Kai’s charming blend of fantasy and sci-fi.
Netflix is going all out for the Karate Kid spinoff series, Cobra Kai, which became a phenomenon after jumping to the streamer from YouTube. The season is set to be split into three parts, with the first premiering this summer. Fittingly, this final season will see the senseis and their students competing in a world tournament, and reckoning with the scale of that event. The second part of the season will premiere in November, with the third slated for sometime in 2025.
Netflix is wrapping up a bunch of long-running shows this summer, and Never Have I Ever is among the shows that will be missed the most. Season 4 is set to pick up shortly after the events of season 3 as the characters deal with the fallout from the end of that season, including grappling with a reality in which they no longer have superpowers. This final run is only going to be six episodes, but the creators have promised that that episode count is exactly the length they need to tell this final part of their story well.
The only new show to make the list, and one of the most intriguing, Black Cake follows a group of people in South London who all suddenly discover that they have superpowers. The only thing connecting them is that they are Black, and one man takes on the responsibility of bringing them together. While we obviously have less of a sense of where this show will go than some of the others on this list, Black Cake has a hugely intriguing premise that will showcase lots of great Black British actors, and that already has us excited. Add in some superpowers, and we might just find ourselves hooked.
